Thomson Newspapers
Location: Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Square Footage: 19,000
Completion: 1998

As an employee of GSI, Todd Heirls was responsible for Project Management, Project Architecture, and Design. This project encompassed planning, programming, design and construction administration for a 19,000 square foot Press Room and Packaging addition to the existing facility. The scope encompassed the relocation of the existing production components to the new addition, and then renovated the vacated portion of the facility for storage of newsprint and FSI. The largest challenge was the extremely tight schedule that required construction to begin in January in the Michigan climate. A local design build contractor was selected to complete the project from design development through completion, predicated by the need to work with winter construction techniques and materials.

Todd Heirls worked closely with the local planning team, the owner’s equipment infrastructure coordinators, equipment vendor’s engineers, and design build contractor to coordinate and integrate the selected production and packaging equipment into the facility. Once the rebuilt Goss Urbanite Press was installed, the existing press was removed and placed in the owner’s warehouse for use in other Thomson facilities. The facility also incorporated two SLS-2000 inserters, stack tie lines and cross conveying distribution systems.